


Amadeus Knows Best

by respoftw



Series: 30 prompt OTP challenge - McShep [10]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Alternate Universe, Cats, M/M, Meet-Cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-10
Updated: 2017-06-10
Packaged: 2018-11-12 11:57:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11161377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/respoftw/pseuds/respoftw
Summary: Rodney McKay chases his cat into his downstairs neighbour's apartment and life will never be the same again.





	Amadeus Knows Best

**Author's Note:**

> I'm pretty sure the concept for this came from a tumblr post of AU ideas but damned if I can find it again!
> 
> This is filling prompt #10 - with animals.

It had been a long day and all Rodney wanted to do was find something to eat, cuddle his cat and unwind.  His arms felt heavy as he used his key to unlock the front door of his apartment, a testament to the thirty-six hours of work that he’d just finished.  Sleep was what he really needed, what he’d promised Carson he would get, but Rodney knew that he was too wired to sleep, still riding the adrenaline high of the almost-catastrophe.  He could have asked for something to help him relax, Carson wasn’t quite as stingy with the sleeping pills as he was with everything else, but Rodney hated the way they made him feel - like his brain was wrapped in cotton wool.  He’d rather take the crash he knew was coming on the chin.

If he was lucky, he had just enough time to heat up a Kraft dinner, open a can of food for Amadeus and watch an episode or two of The Twilight Zone before it came.  

The apartment smelled stale as he entered and Rodney wrinkled his nose.  He made quick work of opening the window that led to the fire escape, letting the moonlight and the smell of rain in.  

“Amadeus?  Mads?”  He called out for Amadeus as he made his way towards the kitchen area, his bag already unceremoniously dumped on the floor, only half surprised when the cat didn’t rush to greet him.  It had been a while since he’d been home and if Rodney had wanted a companion who worshipped him blindly, he’d have gotten a dog.  Mads was most likely sulking haughtily in Rodney’s bedroom, making his displeasure at being left without entertainment for more than a day, the brief visit from whichever grunt that Harriman had sent to refill his food bowl sometime earlier today sorely lacking in the level of stimulation that Mads was used to.  Rodney could almost sympathise.  Thirty-six hours locked in the SGC with the idiots that Carter called a science department wasn’t the level of stimulation he was used to either.

Looking through the cupboards, Rodney bypassed the tin of cat food he’d originally planned on opening and reached for the tuna instead.  It wasn’t something he let Mads indulge in often, far too aware of the dangers, but he had some serious grovelling to do and if there was anything that was guaranteed to entice Amadeus from his sulk, it was the smell of tuna.

Sure enough, as soon as the tin was opened, the ajar door of his bedroom creaked open a bit further as Mads crept into the main living area.  

“A peace offering,” he said as he set the bowl of tuna on the floor.  “But don’t get used to it.”  

Mads padded over to the bowl, took a big sniff, and pushed it away with his front right paw.  With one last haughty look at Rodney, he turned to walk away, his tail high as an extra insult.

“Hey,” Rodney called after Mads’ retreating form.  “You know, cutting off your nose to spite your face hurts you more than it hurts me.”

Mads deigned to look at Rodney, meowing something that sounded suspiciously like ‘fuck you’ before leaping onto the window ledge and escaping through the open window.

Rodney tripped over the bowl of tuna in his hurry to follow, panic ringing the edges of his reaction.  Mads was a house cat, never showing any interest in the outside world.  It was one of the things Rodney loved most about him.  He considered it a sign of good character that Mads had written off the outside world as unworthy of his time.  Rodney wished he could do the same sometimes.  But none of that mattered right now.  All that mattered was that Mads was pissed off enough with him to leave, into a world that he knew nothing about, a world that he was completely unprepared to navigate.

Rodney followed him out the window without hesitation, desperate to get him back.  Jesus, they were high up.  Getting an apartment on the top floor had made sense at the time, no noisy neighbours above him, and the building had an elevator so Rodney hadn’t ever realised how high four floors could be before.  He moved to the top of the stairs that led down, not liking how flimsy the metal structure felt.

He caught sight of Mads on the landing below.  The cat glanced back at him, as if he was daring Rodney to follow him, and promptly disappeared through the window of the apartment below.

Rodney cursed loudly, following the steps as quickly as he dared.  When he got to the landing below, he could see that his neighbour's window was open just wide enough for Mads to squeeze through.  The apartment looked to be laid out exactly as his own was but that was where the similarities ended.  It was perfectly neat, a place for everything and everything in its place, the polar opposite of Rodney’s chaos theory of organisation.  

There was a Johnny Cash poster over the giant TV and at least three gaming consoles set up underneath.  Rodney had no idea which of his neighbours lived there.  He wasn’t sure he could even identify any of his neighbours by sight.  He’d recognise the smell of the old woman who lived on the third floor anywhere, having been stuck in the elevator with her cloying perfume far too often, but games consoles and Johnny Cash didn’t really gel with his impression of her.  Whoever it was, they didn’t look to be in and Rodney could see Mads sitting comfortably on the black leather couch, licking his front paw as if he belonged there.

The past thirty-six hours were still weighing heavily on Rodney and, in that instant, he was just done with it. With all of it.

Narrowing his eyes at Mads, he gripped the bottom of the open window pane and heaved it upwards, creating enough space for him to fold himself through.  He knocked over a stack of books as he stepped into the empty apartment, bending down to pick them up with a muffled curse.

Huh.

Newton’s _The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy_ and the _Collected Papers of  Srinivasa_ Ramanjuan jockeyed for position with _The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy_ and John Le Carre.  

Mads’ shocked meow broke him out of his contemplation over who could possibly own these books and Rodney hastily restacked them before crossing the hardwood floors to get his damn cat back.

“What the hell were you thinking?” he hissed.  “Do you have any idea how much trouble you’re in? Or how much trouble you could get me in?”

Mads flicked his paw at Rodney, claws extended and Rodney snapped again, his voice returning to full volume as he lifted Mads up, heedless of the claws. “Ok, that is it!  I am beyond exhausted and all I wanted was - - “

“Hands where I can see them.  I have a gun and believe me when I say that I am trained to use it.”  

Rodney broke off into a shriek as the front door of the apartment flew open and what might have been the most attractive man he’d ever seen outside of a Keanu Reeves movie barrelled through the door with a gun in his hand.  His hands flew above his head in surrender, Mads still held in them which caused the cat to meow his displeasure and squirm his way out of Rodney’s hold, accidentally clawing at Rodney’s forearm on his way down.

Rodney hissed in pain, curling in on himself as he grabbed at his arm before remembering the situation and raising his arms above his head again.  He was fairly sure he could feel blood trickling down his arm and his stomach flipped unpleasantly at the sensation.

The real kick in the teeth though was the way Mads had ran towards the other man and rubbed up against his leg.  The man reached down without taking his eyes or his gun off Rodney and lifted Mads up carefully, cradling the cat against his chest where Mads tucked himself happily.

“Oh my god, you’re cheating on me!”

Rodney would later blame the incipient crash for the accusation.

“Excuse me?”  The attractive man had a very pleasant voice, Rodney noted.  Slow and drawling, so different to the sharp speed that he himself spoke at.  “Look, buddy, I have no idea who you are but if this is some kind of Fatal Attraction thing, can you leave my cat out of it?”

Rodney sputtered in disbelief.  “ _Your_ cat?   _Yours_?  That’s _my_ damn cat.  I followed him in here!”

The man seemed to relax then, holstering his gun and bouncing Mads up and down in the way that Rodney knew that he loved.  

“So, you’re Ferris’ owner?  Upstairs right?  McKay?  I’m Sheppard.  John.   You know, you really shouldn’t have a cat if you can’t be there for him like he needs you to be.  This little guy has been visiting me down here three of four times a week for the past six months.”

Rodney glared.  “I’ll have you know that I have a very important job.  If it wasn’t for me, there wouldn’t be a down here for him to visit!  You should both be thanking me.  And his name is Amadeus, not Ferris.”

John looked at the cat with an assessing gaze.  “He doesn’t look like an Amadeus to me.”

“I call him Mads for short,” Rodney admitted.  

John nodded, smirking.  “Mads.  Yeah, I like that.  Nice to meet you officially, Mads,” he said to the cat.  He raised his head to look at Rodney again.  “You can, uh, you can put your hands down now, y’know.  Now that I know you’re not here to rob me or kill me.”

“It would be your own fault if I was,” Rodney snapped.  “What kind of idiot leaves their window open when they’re not home?”

John cocked an eyebrow in amusement.  “I’m guessing that you do, seeing as your cat somehow manages to sneak out and down the fire escape multiple times a week.”  

Rodney couldn’t exactly dispute that fact.  Gingerly, he lowered his arms.

John’s eyes suddenly crinkled in concern.  “Jesus, McKay, you’re really bleeding there.  Sit down before you fall down.  I’ll go and get something to clean you up.”

John practically pushed him onto the couch, dropping Mads in his lap as he made his way towards where Rodney knew the bathroom was.

Mads meowed pitifully, bumping his nose at Rodney’s arm, trying to settle himself underneath it.  

“Oh, so now you want to cuddle,” Rodney complained without heat.  He moved his arm and let Mads make himself comfortable, something he was evidently used to doing in John’s apartment.  Rodney couldn’t blame him, he supposed.  The couch was incredibly comfortable, he’d have to find out where John bought it.

Shifting slightly, Rodney let his head fall back against the black leather and, between one breath and the next, he was asleep.

* * *

“Whuh?”

Rodney blinked awake to the sight of hazel eyes and messy hair and - - it all came back to him.

“Oh my God,” he rubbed at his face.  “I broke into your apartment.”  He looked around the room, noticing the muted rays of sunrise creeping across the hardwood.  “I broke into your apartment and fell asleep on your couch!”

“Don’t forget ‘bled all over my shiny hardwood floors’ as well.”

Rodney groaned and John chuckled.

“Here,” he held a mug out to Rodney.  “Have some coffee.”

Rodney took the mug warily.  “Why are you being nice to me?” he asked.  “Shouldn’t you be calling the police?”

“I’m being neighbourly,” John shrugged.  “Besides, what am I gonna tell the police?  Officer, there’s an exhausted and wounded man asleep on my couch cuddled up with his cat.  Bring the SWAT team?”  

Rodney looked at his arm, noting the expertly applied bandage wrapped around it.  

“You were dead to the world,” John explained.  “I didn’t seem to be disturbing you so I cleaned you up.  It looked worse than it was.”

Rodney nodded his thanks and sipped the coffee, groaning in delight at the taste.

“S’good,” he blushed as John laughed.  He set the still full mug on the coffee table and moved to stand up.  “I should, uh, I should go back to my, uh - - “

“At least finish your coffee,” John insisted.  “I’ve already fed Mads, he wandered back up to your apartment afterwards.”

“You fed him?” Rodney asked, surprised.

It was John’s turn to blush.  “Yeah, I, well, he kept coming around and I kinda liked the company so I made sure that I always had something on hand for him.  Not that I have to use it much.  I know what I said last night but he’s, well, you take good care of him.”

“He’s very particular about what he eats,” Rodney cautioned.

“I guessed as much,” John laughed.  “I’ve never met a cat that’s as much of a snob as he is.  I made sure to get the organic, premium stuff that cost more than I usually spend on myself.”

Rodney felt a warm glow settle in the pit of his stomach.  He may have been jealous of Mads’ relationship to John but at least John appreciated Mads as much as Rodney did.

“I’m sorry if I scared you last night,” John said.  “With the whole, pointing a gun at you and - - “

Rodney waved him off.  “I should be the one apologising to you.  I don’t really have an excuse for barging into your apartment uninvited except that I was coming off a day and a half straight of work and - - “

“So, you’ll be due some downtime then?” John asked.

“Some,” Rodney agreed.  “Why?”

“I was, ah, I was going to ask if I could take you to dinner.”  

Rodney considered the invitation, remembering the books he’d knocked over and appreciating the way the golden glow of the sun turned John’s hazel eyes green.  

“Is this you being neighbourly again?” he asked.

John grinned.  “Not at all.”

“In that case, I accept.”

“Cool,” John leant back against the couch briefly before sitting up again and reaching into his pocket.  “Oh, I almost forgot,” he said.  “This fell out your jacket pocket when I was fixing your arm.”  He held out a lightly glowing artefact to Rodney.  Rodney took it with shaking hands, watching the light glow extinguish as it left John’s touch.

“I’ve never seen anything like it but I have this kind of gut feeling that it’s missing a piece.”  

Rodney drew a shaky breath, eyes widening.

“What is it?” John asked.  

“It’s something that’s about to change your life,” Rodney admitted. 

John smiled at him, pressing their lips together in a chaste kiss that promised more, completely missing the point.  Or maybe understanding it better than Rodney ever could.

“I hope so.”

 


End file.
